This visual dictionary available in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian is a gem of a site for ESL or world language students. Visitors can choose a topic, view the associated words and pictures, then test themselves using the activity links on the left side of the page. Interactive practice options include flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, "stinky spelling" (fix the mistakes), and more.

In the Classroom

Use this site as a learning center or station. Have students complete the activity individually, allowing students to better pace themselves and not rely on a partner. To show what they have learned from this site, challenge students to create an online graphic to share using Tabblo reviewed here. Reflection is always a great way to reenforce a lesson in student's minds.

This handy tool helps clear up the search engine confusion. It clearly and simply matches research needs with appropriate online resources. Point your students to this site before starting them on a research project.

Secondary students will appreciate this user-friendly bibliography helper. They still have to do the work of collecting all of the necessary information, but after entering it into the site, a citation with correct MLA format and punctuation is created for them. The citations can then be copied and pasted into a word processing document.

In the Classroom

Have a student demonstrate how to use this tool on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Share this link on your class web page for easy use any time students have a research project. Model ethical use of resources by using it yourself to cite sources on handouts, etc.

This online tutorial provides students, teachers, and parents with guidance and up-to-date information on understanding search engines, using search strategies, evaluating Web sites, and citing resources. There is A LOT of information here, but it is organized into manageable subdivisions that teachers and librarians will find useful. It's fairly high-powered content, so sift through it to isolate those specific gems that your students will need before they jump into a research project.

Enter the hallways of Word Central for an unforgettable online dictionary experience. In addition to finding correct spellings and definitions, you can look for the daily Buzz Word and listen to the pronunciation, or create poems in a snap with Verse Composer. Then walk up to the second floor to the Build Your Own Dictionary room and Computer Lab coding chamber.

If your local library just can't help, try this online service that puts you in contact with Library of Congress research librarians. Live chats are available for some topics. Other inquiries will receive a response within 5 days. Be sure to read the Reference Correspondence Policy at the bottom of the home page for directives on how this resource should be used. This is an "adult" reference tool, not a student's homework assistance hotline!

This site is much more than an on-line rhyming dictionary. Use it as a thesaurus, spell checker, or on-line source for all of Shakespeare's works. Other features include interactive quizzes on a variety of topics (high-school level), thousands of searchable quotations and poems, and the complete texts of several famous documents.

Knowing the specific rules about copyright terms can be a definite benefit when copying or scanning. This easy-to-read chart outlines the point at which published or unpublished materials enter the public domain. It may be more information than you care to know about the public domain, but it will keep you legal!

Explore images, documents, and rare materials in this impressive collection of on-line archives. Search for a specific topic of interest by using the Archival Finding Aids, tour the many on-line exhibitions that cover a wide range of topics, or follow a link to one of beautifully presented portfolios on themes ranging from Small-town America to Surveyors of the American West. Use for your own background research or as a resource for your students. Created by the New York Public Library.

In the Classroom

Use this site to search for images that can be used in your classroom for a visual discovery activity. Select 3-5 of the more powerful images, placing them on separate slides of a PowerPoint show. Show each slide to the class for 1-2 minutes each, allowing students time to jot down what they observe, predict and infer about each image. After the class has finished with the slides, have a class discussion based on the notes that students took accompanying a replaying of the slide show. This is a great way to introduce or review a topic in a non-lecture format.

Provide students with a resource that can answer all of their questions when working on a bibliography for a class project or paper. This site conveniently features MLA, Turabian, APA, and AAA styles, presents examples of specific citations, and provides links to other helpful Web sources. Developed by the Seattle Central Community College Library.

This highly interactive explanation of copyright laws helps students recognize and understand their responsibility in citing sources. Use as an introduction or refresher before assigning research projects. The site also contains teacher resources and tips on explaining copyright issues.

Educators who have lamented the demise of the AskERIC service will welcome its new incarnation, offering a robust, up-to-date collection of theme-based educator resources, and wealth of lesson plans, and archives of past questions. Managed by the Information Institute of Syracuse, the new format greatly enhances usability. Kudos!

Here is a remarkable resource for helping middle and high-school students master the art of putting their thoughts into words. An online handbook for writers, the site provides resources for writing different types of papers and gives helpful hints for organizing one's writing. This is a great site to use in teaching expository writing, or to give to students as an additional resource when revising and editing their own written work.

This site provides good fine arts background material with museum listings, photographs of works, and articles for a number of artists. Teachers and students can search for information by artist, painting title, and museum. The site also has a great comprehensive list of artistic movements with definitions and a list of participating artists.

Students frequently believe facts are credible just because they found them on the web. Not so. U.C. Berkeley's discussion of how to tell a web page's pedigree is one of the better treatments we've seen. Librarians and teachers assigning research projects may want to use this page as a model for their own discussion, or simply offer it to their students as required reading. Add this one to your reference bookmarks.

No matter what you want to measure, you'll find information on how to quantify it here. While some browsing is required, teachers will find applications for this information in science, math, geography, and other subject areas. The reference possibilities are also extensive. Add this one to your toolkit of web reference specialties.

Cornell University's guide to evaluating online information sources would be a great primer for teachers who are not proficient web searchers. High school students will also find this site a useful way of separating the reliable research sources from those less trustworthy.

Here's an on-line resource from Duke University offering drop-down instructions for citing more than a dozen different types of sources. What's especially slick is the comparison between Chicago, APA, MLA, and Turabian style formats. This makes the site useful across a wide range of standards and settings. It's the closest we've found to one-stop shopping for research citation help.

In the Classroom

This site would be useful for any teacher who assigns a research paper, regardless of the subject. Open this site on the interactive whiteboard or projector and share it with students before assigning them a research project. To insure that students are reminded of plagiarism and the importance if citing, copy this link on to any student assignment sheets that contain information about their research paper.

This is a great guide for teachers interested in getting their students to use the web and related technologies creatively. You'll find a step-by-step process that lets students get organized before heading off on a project and encourages them to sort through their results before building a project. Great backgrounder for teachers getting started with web research.

For technical and historical information about space travel and technology, this site is probably without peer. There are hundreds of pages, images, and minutely detailed chronologies of the people, programs, and equipment which have contributed to space travel in countries around the world. It's an outstanding research site, and a wealth of information.